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Bridging the Stakeholder Gaps

In software development, if I asked you about “bridging the gap” what would spring to mind? Why, bridging the gap between the business and the development team of course. Well this is not the only gap that needs to be bridged.

This post focuses its attention on the gaps that exist between the business stakeholders themselves. These arise from the different view points and goals of the stakeholders which are seldom aligned and often conflict.

Many Worlds

Stakeholders and stakeholder groups have different perspectives, sets of objectives and day-to-day constraints. One group may be focused on generating new and repeat customers; another on selling advertising; another on management information; another on usability of the product; another on producing engaging content; another on efficiency of back-office processes. It’s fair to say that each of these stakeholder groups lives in a different ‘world’ ruled by different ‘forces’.

In order to manage the stakeholders with respect to a software product, it’s important to understand these ‘worlds’ and their ‘inhabitants’. This understanding facilitates the following:

good working relationships with stakeholders

effective communication and collaboration

understanding the reasoning behind requirements

facilitating a shared and common understanding between stakeholders

helping stakeholders groups to spot opportunities to work better together

The rest of this post looks at techniques and approaches to exploring these different worlds, getting to know their inhabitants and ultimately bridging the gaps between individual stakeholders.

Understand the “As Is” world before the desired future “To Be” world

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Focus on the problem first, not solutions

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Separate opinions from facts

Opinions tend to be biased in some way based on past experiences, are changeable, and at worst impulsive and may become obsolete almost as soon as they have been expressed, “Did I really say that? I can’t remember.”

Capture and share stakeholder goals & constraints

Stakeholders within one group may not have a full view of the goals and constraints of another even if they work closely together. Stakeholders quite naturally operate on a need to know basis, expressing a view with respect to a specific point of concern at any given time. There often exist opportunities to increase awareness and understanding across groups that lead to better collaboration and more specifically to better product requirements.

Establish a shared vision and consensus perspective

Use Pictures

People like pictures and they are also more likely to share them and use them for reference.